On this episode of Deprogrammed, host Harrison Pitt of the European Conservative is joined by SDP London mayoral candidate Amy Gallagher and special guest Charlie Samson, political commentator and citizen journalist, who tells us what really happened when the police confronted English patriots in Whitehall on St George’s Day.
Month: May 2024
Multiculti Chaos
By Alex Gordon
The Greek word χάος means “void, abyss,” from the verb χαίνω, “to gape, to be wide open,” and the cognate Old English geanian, “to gape, to open.”
The relationship between spiritual collapse and the decay of moral and social order is a common theme in the prophets, especially Isaiah.
In election campaigns in democracies, struggling parties threaten voters that the victory of the enemy represents the end of democracy for their country and the advent of dictatorship in it.
But there is a far greater threat to a country than the weakening of its democracy — it is chaos, anarchy, the loosening and even disintegration of civil society, and perhaps even civil war.
Anarchists threaten not the existence of democracy, but the existence of the state. The system formed after these perturbations will not necessarily become totalitarian, as the fighters for democracy threaten, i.e., it may not be about the loss of freedom, but about the loss of the order of governing the country. A functional dictatorship, like Singapore and even China, may be better for citizens than the chaos of state collapse, because it provides stabilization of society.
The pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place in the U.S. are far more threatening to the U.S. than the Israel they target. The pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses oppose the Democrat party’s vision of a solution to the Middle East conflict — two states for two peoples — as they fight for one state for the Arab Palestinian people instead of one Jewish state: they demand the liberation of Palestine from the Israelis, “from river to sea.”
In this way, they act as an opposition to the ruling Democrat party. But much more dangerously, these demonstrations are against democracy in general and, in particular, against American democracy. Technically, they are fighting against democracy in Israel and siding with the murderers and rapists of Hamas.
But he who fights against democracy in another country does not like democracy in his own country, either. Huge demonstrations create and legitimize anarchy: the establishment negotiates with anarchists to regularize anarchy. Anarchy in the U.S. comes from two sources — from crowds of illegal immigrants and from crowds of protesting opponents of democracy. Chaos is worse than democracy because democracy has boundaries and laws, chaos has none.
Democracy is not always the power of democrats. In one speech, Joseph Stalin created a characteristically sly joke about democracy: “I thought democracy was the power of the people, but Comrade Roosevelt lucidly explained to me that democracy is the power of the American people!” Democrats are not those who think democracy is their power. Usually the opposite is true: anyone who monopolizes their right to power by calling it democracy is most likely an anti-democrat.
One can learn about the future in the United States by observing the results of the flood of Islamic immigrants into Europe that began as a result of the Arab Spring in 2010.
The huge flow of immigrants into Europe is creating social chaos. The leaders of European countries, thinking they were in control, created chaos that turned against the indigenous population of their countries. They proceeded from the theory of multiculturalism, but a few months after mass immigration began, they admitted the failure of their policy. They had created turbulent flows of populations alien to Europe.
In the summer of 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been more active than any other European leader in promoting the resettlement of Arab refugees in Europe, summarized the German government’s failure to integrate them: “Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany, in which people of different cultures live in full harmony, have finally and irrevocably failed. The integration of foreigners is one of the main political tasks of the near future. Migrants should not only be supported, but also demanded, which has been given too little attention in recent times.”
In 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy summarized his country’s experience with multiculturalism this way: “Yes, it is very clear that it was a failure. We have been too concerned with the identity of the person who comes to the country and have not paid enough attention to the identity of the country that receives the newcomer.”
Before the flood of immigrants into Europe, many Europeans thought the answer to Europe’s social problems was multiculturalism, that is, the idea of a society that fully accepts foreigners who practice Islam, while preserving their religious and mental characteristics, without requiring them to integrate. But it turned out that multiculturalism facilitates not the integration of immigrants, but their consolidation, their isolation and promotes the creation of a state within a state. Then the European country becomes two states for two peoples, a state of natives and a state of immigrants who do not dissolve in the European democracy.
Society’s tolerance and respect for immigrants who are intolerant and disrespectful of that society prepares the change of power. The arrival of huge numbers of immigrants turns the country into a turbulent system that can easily, by a small push, move into a state of crisis with unpredictable results. The destabilization of society can be more dangerous for it than deviations from the democratic regime. If a ship is rocked violently, it may go off course and slightly change its direction, but it is much more dangerous that this rocking may cause it to sink.
French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut writes in his book Unhappy Identity that French identity is disappearing amid the active multiplication of Muslims, which is a “danger to the republic.” He links his fears to the formation of a multicultural and post-national France.
British journalist Simon Kuper reported in the Financial Times on his French observations: “Having moved to France in 2002, I witnessed first-hand the cultural revolution taking place in the country. Catholicism is virtually extinct (only 6% of French people now attend mass regularly). […] The non-white population continues to grow.” French political scientist Jérôme Fourquet, in his book The French Archipelago: the Birth of a Multiple and Divided Nation (2019), describes the cultural collapse of French society as a “post-Christian era,” as the French parting ways with Catholicism, as a “self-de-Christianization.” A recent study shows that there are as many Muslims in France as Catholics. In The French Archipelago, Fourquet presents a picture of a fractured, fragmented French society, from a single and indivisible nation to a true multicultural “archipelago.”
In 2020, the concept of “Islamist separatism” entered the French political lexicon, which means the non-recognition of the fundamental principles of the French Republic by a part of the French population and the creation of a “parallel society”. Muslims in France make up 9% of the population. This percentage is enough to create a “parallel counter-society” and a state within a state.
In the U.S., Muslims make up about 1% of the population. How long will it take the U.S. to reach the level of the French crisis if political correctness, multi-culti (etymology from the German Multikulti) dialogue from a position of tolerance and respect with intolerant populations are the constant governing companions of the current U.S. administration?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/multiculti_chaos.html
Lutheran bishop on trial for ‘hate speech’ in Finland urges Christians to defend marriage
A Lutheran prelate facing prosecution for “hate speech” in Finland has called on Christians to defend marriage and traditional sexual morals.
“Now it’s time to use our freedom of speech. Otherwise, we lose it,” Juhana Pohjola told LifeSiteNews in an exclusive interview.
Pohjola has been in a legal battle for five years together with Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen for defending biblical marriage. Pohjola and Räsänen were already unanimously acquitted of “hate speech” charges twice but now face a third and final trial at the Supreme Court of Finland.
Pohjola said the Finnish prosecutor may want to set a precedent in the high-profile case.
“We are willing to go all the way and defend our biblical views and also the right of speech and religion, the freedom of that in Finland and the rest of the world,” he told LifeSiteNews.
The Lutheran bishop said he is worried about the “chilling effect” this case could have on society, as it may make people afraid to “publicly confess their faith and share their views on marriage and other ethical issues.”
However, he also sees the positive effects of the case, as Christians have realized that “it’s not self-evident anymore in these times that there is a freedom of speech and religion.”
“We have to pray for it, but we have to work for it in the society as well” so that “future generations will have the opportunity to publicly confess the faith that we have received.”
Pohoja is being accused of “hate speech” for a booklet published in 2004 called “Male and Female He Created Them – Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity,” which calls homosexuality a “disorder.”
Räsänen, who is the former Interior Minister of Finland and a grandmother of 11 children, is standing trial in the same case as the author of the booklet and for a 2019 tweet questioning the Finnish Lutheran church’s sponsorship of an LGBT “pride” event and citing a Bible verse from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans.
When asked by LifeSiteNews about his message to Christians who may face persecution for defending Christian teaching publicly, Pohoja responded: “Our Lord said: ‘Do not be afraid!’”
Lutheran Bishop Juhana Pohjola’s message to Christians who face persecution for defending marriage and the family:
— Andreas Wailzer (@Andreas_Wailzer) May 2, 2024
“Our Lord said: ‘Do not be afraid!’”
“It’s a calling for Christians to cherish the gift of marriage and family, and in a positive way say… pic.twitter.com/Lp3blq8nrn
“He is sending us as his servant, but he is not only sending us but has promised to be with us every day in our lives.”
“So wherever he sends, he comes with us and provides the words, provides the strength, provides the joy [we need],” he continued.
“As Christians, we have a wonderful opportunity to share about the forgiveness of sins in Christ,” he said, noting widespread problems with sexuality today.
“We all need Christ and his healing grace in our life, and also it’s a calling for Christians to cherish the gift of marriage and family and in a positive way say ‘Look, this is the good institution of our Lord and let us receive it as He has planned it.’”
Ooh la la! ‘EU must use erotic love to beat nationalism,’ Macron says
The European Union must weaponise the power of erotic love to fight against nationalism, according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Speaking to The Economist on April 29 in an interview published on May 2, the French leader lambasted many pro-EU politicians as having already given into the “spirit of defeat”, something he said put Europe at risk of “a much more brutal death than you can imagine” at the hands of nationalists and other hostile forces.
Macron argued that the only way to combat such a deadly spirit – which he classified as Thanatos, seemingly in reference to neo-Freudian thought and the Greek mythological god of death – was to deploy Eros, the spirit of life, love and sexual attraction.
“Politics is Eros versus Thanatos. That’s politics,” declared the French leader – who possesses a master’s degree in philosophy.
“The spirit of defeat means two things: you get used to it and you stop fighting.
“If Thanatos is hungrier, death wins. If Europeans are on the side of Eros, it’s the only way to manage.”
The President went on to say that, despite all the problems currently plaguing Europe, he remained stubbornly optimistic about the bloc’s future.
This hope, Macron argued, was in itself the best way of fighting back against those who wish to see the EU fall.
“And when I tell you that it’s the question of Eros, that’s really what it’s all about,” he said.
“If you tell people it’s over, it’s already over. They’ve already lost.”
This is far from the first time Macron has invoked the classics to analyse European politics.
Having studied Hegel and Machiavelli in university, he has become known for what some see as somewhat odd pronouncements.
Regarding his presidency, Macron has compared himself to not one but two Greek gods – Jupiter and Hephaestus.
Macron can also be less poetic at times, using rather crude language at one stage during the Covid pandemic to explain his crackdown on citizens who refused to get vaccinated.
“The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off,” he said, using the term “emmerder“.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/05/ooh-la-la-eu-must-use-erotic-love-to-beat-nationalism-macron-says
Biden Calls Japan “Xenophobic” for Not Having Open Borders: “Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants”
Why can’t Japan be more like America and open itself up to every single invader with a plane ticket?
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called close US ally Japan “xenophobic” at a Washington, D.C., fundraiser, just weeks after lauding the US-Japan alliance at a state dinner.
The president made the remark at the off-camera event while arguing that Japan, along with India, Russia and China, would perform better economically if the countries embraced immigration more.
“You know, one of the reasons why our economy is growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants. We look to – the reason – look, think about it – why is China stalling so badly economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia? Why is India? Because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants,” Biden said, according to an official White House transcript released Thursday.
Our GDP growth is 1.9%. Japan is at 1.0%. India’s is 7.2%. China’s is 3.0%.
I wouldn’t brag about being ahead of Japan considering that we’re neck and neck with Burkina Faso and South Africa and lagging much of the world.
Opening up your borders to every invader who wants to cash in on your welfare state is not a plan for economic growth. As the mayors of NYC, Denver, and Chicago have been explaining to Open Borders Joe.
India is a net exporter of immigrants to this country so arguing that it needs immigrants is a confusing thesis. All of the above countries do have declining birth rates and that is bad news, but the solution to that is raising birth rates, not bringing in millions of illegal aliens to loot your cities, as Biden has done.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/biden-calls-japan-xenophobic-for-not-having-open-borders
Planned attack on the ‘Génération identitaire’ in France: proceedings demanded against two young people suspected of being close to the jihadist movement
Two young people aged 17 and 19 are to be charged in a trial requested by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), as Le Figaro reports. They are accused of having planned an attack on a pub in Lyon belonging to the Génération identitaire movement. The judiciary is demanding that the suspects be tried for terrorist criminal organisation and glorification of terrorism. In the case of the minor, there are also death threats in connection with a terrorist organisation. In fact, an informant infiltrated a group on the encrypted messenger Telegram where the two people came together. He learnt that the younger one did not know how to handle weapons, that he had threatened to behead an identitarian activist on social networks and had founded a Telegram group called ‘Islamic State France’. The older one tried to travel to Syria, but was unsuccessful. The 19-year-old suspect then decided to organise an attack on French soil. The young men also made contact with members of Oumar Diaby’s jihadist group. In their internet exchanges, they threatened to attack the police, the military, Jews, transsexuals and identitarians. The suspects deny the accusations made against them. They explained that they had wanted to ‘impress’ and ‘make a name for themselves’.
These people were arrested in Yvelines in March 2023 before being charged and subsequently detained.
Recently, the 17-year-old was placed under judicial supervision after 13 months in pre-trial detention.
On ‘transgenderism,’ Germany goes crazy and the UK claws back sanity
By Andrea Widburg
Within the same one-month period, Germany passed the most insanely pro-“transgender” laws in the world, while Britain pulled back from the abyss and officially recognized that there are only two biological sexes. It remains to be seen which policy will gain traction in Europe…and in America.
Here’s what happened in Germany:
The German Parliament, or Bundestag, passed one of the world’s most far-reaching sex self-determination policies on April 12, despite protests from women’s rights campaigners. The Self-Determination Act (SBGG) establishes ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth.
Supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition and promoted and supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the SBGG also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to €10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a person’s given name and birth sex without their permission – an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as ‘deadnaming.’
But arguably the most troubling aspect of the law relates to a portion of the bill which permits parents to alter the recorded sex of children beginning from birth. From the age of five years old, it allows for name and sex changes if there is “mutual consent” between the child and their parents.
Did you get that last bit about a five-year-old child “consenting” to have his sex changed on his birth certificate?
Meanwhile, in the UK, the National Health Service, which reflects official government policy, will finally back away from so-called “transgenderism”:
Changes to the health service’s written constitution proposed by ministers will for the first time ban trans women from women-only wards, and give women the right to request a female doctor for intimate care.
[snip]
In 2021, NHS guidance said trans patients could be placed in single-sex wards based on the gender with which they identified.
The new constitution will state: “We are defining sex as biological sex.”
The clarification means that the right to a single-sex ward means patients would “not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite biological sex”.
Ah, normalcy, at last, at least in the country that bequeathed many of its values to us 250 years ago. There, at least, it seems that (a) the hysterical madness of the so-called “transgender” activists, (b) women’s realization that they are being subordinated to insane men, and (c) the emerging evidence that “transgenderism” was always a political and social con rather than a physical reality are slowly making themselves felt…at least in some areas.
I’m really not sure what to say at this point. Germany has opted for insanity while Britain is trying to claw its way back to normalcy. We see the same schism in America as the different states battle it out over whether to subject children to the mental and physical torture of so-called “transgenderism.” It’s to be hoped that we follow in Britain’s footsteps rather than in Germany’s.
Ideological Bedfellows in the Gaza Debate
The American student protests should be a wake-up call. Without a doubt, many of the students protesting Israel’s military action against Hamas in Gaza genuinely care for the plight of the Palestinian civilians being used by Hamas as human shields. However, it is clear that many student protestors are associating with very dark forces. Some of them have even gone so far as to praise Hamas and to openly call for burning Tel Aviv.
Over here in Europe, similar concerns have been raised. Mohammed Khatib is the EU coordinator for Samidoun, an extremist pro-Palestinian organisation. He lives in Belgium, and enjoys ‘refugee’ status. In a webinar on the terror raid on October 7, he stated that it was “a glorious day” that made him proud. Samidoun is considered a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian terror organisation notorious for plane hijackings and assassinations. Terrorists linked to the PFLP were also allegedly involved in the October 7 terror attack.
In Germany, Samidoun was banned after it handed out pastries at a music festival in Berlin to celebrate the gruesome Hamas massacre. The ban means that the organisation’s assets will be confiscated in Germany, posts on the internet and social media are banned, and people active in the organisation are liable to be punished by the German legal system. However, in both Belgium and the Netherlands, the organisation remains legal. In the Netherlands, glorifying terrorism is not punishable. However, Samidoun is also suspected of financing terrorism in Germany, so it remains to be seen how long it can go about its business in the Low Countries.
Regardless of Samidoun’s criminal nature, it is strange to see the organisation demonstrate against Israeli military action in Gaza in the company of NGOs defending women’s, gay, and youth rights, and development cooperation organisations. Some demonstrators also waved Samidoun flags at the highly charged opening of the Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on March 10, 2024. Organisations like Samidoun openly support the terror group Hamas. In Gaza, where Hamas has been in power for almost two decades, the fundamental rights of women and homosexuals are severely violated. Unmarried women are not allowed to leave Gaza without the consent of a male guardian, and homosexuality is punishable by torture and death.
Eyes wide shut
In a commentary piece on Germany’s ban of Samidoun, Belgian journalist Bruno Struys states: “The fact that Samidoun, an organisation that approves of Hamas’ acts of terror, can operate in Brussels but not in Germany will strengthen them with us.” According to him, it is also “reminiscent of the campaign by NGOs and left-wing politicians a decade ago to get Oussama Atar released, who would later plot the March 22 attacks.”
Oussama Atar, a Belgian citizen from Brussels, masterminded the attacks in Paris and Brussels in 2015 and 2016. Before he rose to the top of the Islamic State during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, he had already been detained by the Americans because they considered him to be dangerous. That was in 2005. As a result of a campaign by Brussels politicians and a number of NGOs, such as Amnesty International, the Belgian authorities backed his case, and he was eventually released. Back in Belgium, Atar then turned his full attention to building a terror network and travelling back and forth to the Middle East, with terrible consequences.
To oppose Israeli action in Gaza or to think that a Belgian citizen like Oussama Atar should not simply be held captive by U.S. occupation forces in Iraq is one thing. But to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with malicious extremists is something else entirely.
In the same vein, after October 7, French left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon was the only political leader to refuse to condemn the terror attack. It dealt the death blow to Nupes, an alliance of leftist French political parties that was nonetheless leading in the polls for the European elections. Nor was it the first incident in which Mélenchon’s party appeared to have questionable double standards whenever Jews were involved.
And again, Swedish Social Democratic Party MEP Evin Incir managed to draft an EP report on relations between the European Union and the Palestinian Authority without mentioning Hamas, terrorism, antisemitism, or the persecution of Palestinian Christians by their Muslim counterparts.
Media bias
An investigation by Belgian historian Sylvie Lausberg and liberal Belgian MP Viviane Teitelbaum further reveals that the media urgently needs to look into the mirror. Indeed, the two women, who had both been presidents of the French-speaking Women’s Council of Belgium (CFFB), claim that it was no less than 60 days after the October 7 terror attack that the French-speaking government broadcaster RTBF finally reported on the sexual offences committed by Hamas at the time, and then only via three short news items. This while the international news agency Reuters was already reporting it on October 15. The investigators particularly denounce the fact that on the RTBF website, historian Anne Morelli stresses that “all testimonies should be taken with a pinch of salt.” Would feminist NGOs accept such statements in a different context? Probably not. Yet no protest has been heard from that quarter, while women’s rights groups do take part in protests where Samidoun’s extremists are also regulars.
The irony here is that the same RTBF claims to publish news “from a gender perspective,” which assumes a feminist point of view. Some private media, namely La Libre and RTL, were slightly quicker—November 14—but for the left-leaning French-language Belgian newspaper Le Soir, it wasn’t until December 15 that it devoted its first article to the sexual violence that took place on October 7.
Journalists, like NGOs, are predominantly left leaning. It should therefore come as no surprise that, according to the British Campaign Against Antisemitism, antisemitism is mainly found among left-wing political parties. As many as 80% of recorded cases of antisemitism originated from left-wing British parties.
Unfortunately, left-wing antisemitism has historical precedence. For example, the 19th-century French radical Pierre Leroux, who popularised the term ‘socialist,’ was an incorrigible antisemite. He stated, “When we speak of the Jews … we mean the Jewish spirit—the spirit of profit, of lucre, of gain, of speculation; in a word, the banker’s spirit.”
It is hard to deny that this kind of thinking is still very prevalent today among the Left and its allies.
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/ideological-bedfellows-in-the-gaza-debate
Hard Left & Islamists united in hatred for us
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EU hands €1 billion to Lebanon to fight migration flow to Cyprus
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced a €1 billion support package for Lebanon in a bid to help Beirut quell the stream of migrants to Cyprus.
Von der Leyen visited Lebanon to make the announcement, on May 2, in an effort to show her support for Cyprus. The country is struggling with record-breaking numbers of asylum seekers entering via Lebanon.
The European Union will provide money try to stop migration but also wants to support the return of Syrian refugees to what are deemed safe areas in Syria.
Lebanese forces will receive equipment and training from Europe to improve border security.
In April, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides announced that, due to the recent surge in Syrian migrants arriving by sea, his country suspended the examination of asylum applications from Syrians.
Some 2,004 people arrived in Cyprus by sea in the first three months of this year, compared to just 78 in the same period of 2023, according to official data.
In a joint press conference, von der Leyen said Lebanon struggled with tensions and war in the region and that the EU “strongly supports” the country and its people and wanted to “reinforce their longstanding co-operation”.
She announced the aid package will be operational from this year until 2027. The stated main goals were to support and improve basic services such as education and health.
In addition, an emphasis was on economic, financial and banking reforms, which were “key for long-term improvement of the overall economic situation in the country”, she said as Lebanon struggles with economic turmoil and towering inflation.
Security and stability were also mentioned.
Von der Leyen noted that “it would be very helpful for Lebanon to conclude a working arrangement with Frontex”, Europe’s border agency, “on information exchange and situational awareness”.
She also stressed the importance of the possibility of legal migration and resettlement in Europe but added there was a need to fight illegal migration and people-smuggling.
Christodoulides said: “The current situation is not sustainable for Lebanon, not for Cyprus and not for the EU.
“It hasn’t been sustainable for years, but developments, especially in recent months, force us to seek immediate solutions.”
He also called for the UNCHR to address the issue of voluntary returns and re-examine the safety situation in certain areas of Syria.
The EC has said in the past that it would adhere to the UNCHR parameters and thresholds.
Lebanon and Cyprus want the EU and the UN to recognise more areas in Syria as safe, enabling easier repatriation of people to the country.
Aid workers and human rights organisations oppose that, saying the country is not safe whatsoever, anywhere.
There were no questions taken during von der Leyen’s press conference.
The EU has been increasingly engaged with third parties to try to stop the high numbers of migrants departing toward Europe.
The EC already signed agreements with Egypt and Tunisia, while a deal was also made with Mauritania. That country will get €210 million in return for implementing stricter strict border controls.
https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/05/eu-hands-e1-billion-to-lebanon-to-fight-migration-flow-to-cyprus